NEW DELHI, Sep 05 (IPS) - Legislators from around the world, this week, officially submitted to the Sherpa of the G20 meeting set for September in New Delhi a declaration calling on governments to prioritise spending on ageing, youth, gender, human security, and other burning population issues.
(MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
The Child Rights Network (CRN) and the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD) identified the proposed legislations as those on “Anti-Child Rape Bill,” “Prohibition of Child Marriage” and the “Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention.”
The two non-governmental organizations said that last Dec. 1, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill 7836 which provides for stronger protection against rape, sexual exploitation, and abuse and increasing the age for determining the commission of statutory rape from below 12 to below 16 years.
They said HB 7836 “contains potent provisions which include increasing the age to determine statutory rape from below 12 to below 16, equalizing the protection for victims of rape, whether a boy or a girl, and the removal of marriage as forgiveness exemption where the perpetrator is freed of legal responsibility if the perpetrator marries the person he rape